Provo City Council votes to raise taxes to boost library funding

PROVO — The Provo City Council voted Tuesday to raise taxes to cover a budget shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars at the city’s library.

Leaders warned the library would have to cut services if it didn’t get the extra money from the property tax hike, which equates to just under $12 a year on the typical home.

“We can’t keep the service level that we have right now without this money,” said Carla Gordon, Provo library director.

A truth-in-taxation hearing was held Tuesday evening at which citizens expressed their opinions on the proposal before the city council voted 6-1 to approve it.

Earlier Tuesday, Provo City Councilmember George Handley told KSL TV he supported the tax increase.

“What we’re asking this year is roughly the price of a movie ticket,” Handley said, while acknowledging the difficulties faced by some on fixed incomes.

But he said the city council received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the public on the tax hike proposal leading up to Tuesday’s hearing.

“More emails than I’ve ever received in six and a half years on any issue,” Handley said, “and I’ve never seen such a disproportionate vote in favor of one thing.”

Besides a much smaller tax hike that passed last year, Handley said the library has had to operate on essentially a flat budget – without meaningful increases to account for inflation – since it opened in the old Brigham Young Academy building in 2001.

“When we’ve looked closely at the library’s budget – its expenses – we see no waste. We see no unnecessary things,” Handley said. “We don’t see any real way out by raising fees. We can’t possibly cover the gap that we have right now except through this method.”

In fact, the library has already cut its budget, Gordon said.

“We cut some of our streaming services,” she said. “We cut some hoped-for increases for some salaries and stuff like that.”

If the tax increase wasn’t approved, Gordon said the library would have had to close its attic art exhibit space upstairs and its basement creative lab downstairs, along with cutting some staff.

It’s clear now it won’t get to that point.

“Do I hope to find more ways to be frugal, yeah, always,” said Gordon. “But at some point, inflation hits everybody.”

Provo City Councilmember Travis Hoban was the lone vote opposing the tax increase. In a statement Tuesday evening, Hoban said he enjoys the library and supports its staff, but he’s concerned with changing estimates over the last year regarding the library’s budget deficit.

“I would like to get a more accurate baseline of what the deficit truly will be moving forward,” Hoban said. “Once we understand the problem more accurately, we can determine the solution, and what tax increase if any would be needed to create a more sustainable fiscal situation for the library moving forward.”

Hoban also said he wants the Provo Library to pursue other ways of increasing revenue through “annual giving, corporate sponsorships, and increased fees in other areas such as room rentals. There is no silver bullet, but it’s possible we could reduce the library’s deficit and the need for tax increases through renewed efforts to generate revenue.”